Fresh Loaf

Here’s a pitfall of privatization: Sometimes the company hired to perform some public task goes kaput. That’s the Atlanta-related footnote to today’s big business news, summed up here by the New York Times:

General Growth Properties, one of the largest mall operators in the nation, filed for bankruptcy early Thursday morning in one of the biggest commercial real estate collapses in U.S. history.

What’s the ATL connection? Well, last summer, the City Council finally hit upon a solution for dealing with the motley collection of street vendors that operate around the Five Points MARTA station, Turner Field and other locations. For years, local business owners had complained that raggedy-ass vendors’ booths made a poor impression on visitors and made downtown look shabby (or perhaps shabbier). The city, however, had never managed to muster the political will to force vendors to shape up.

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If you’ve attended or watched an Atlanta City Council committee meeting, you’ve witnessed the blunt opinions and insight of Dave Walker, a 63-year-old Vietnam veteran and street vendor who says he’s attended nearly every meeting since 1984.

How did you end up in Atlanta?

I was hitchhiking around the country back in the ’70s and I went to Los Angeles. And then I went from LA to New York. And I was standing in my sister’s front yard in New York, and I asked the almighty God “Where do I go now?” And clearly he said to me, “Atlanta.” And that’s how I got here. I came hitchhiking with two pennies.

How does God manifest himself to you?

He can talk. God talks to man’s conscience.

Do you still hitchhike?

No, I am afraid now. And a little too old. (laughs).

Do you like Atlanta?

The thing that I used to like about Atlanta is that Atlanta was a wholesome town. But it’s no longer wholesome. If I left Atlanta, I would starve to death. So I stay here. No other city could I have gone to and become famous. I am famous now, so I like it.

When you say that you are famous, what do you think you are famous for?

I am famous for my quick wit. I am famous for my knowledge of world events, etc. I don’t think there is no council member, no government official, in this state or in this country, who is as qualified to talk about government as I am.

Why do you wear hospital scrubs? [Ed. Walker often wears scrubs to meetings.]

Every great man has to have their notch in history, their notch in the community; the scrubs are part of my notch, part of my identity. Most doctors, nurses, they have on scrubs and I view myself as somewhat of a doctor. And scrubs secondarily are very comfortable. They are versatile and you can wear them anywhere, anytime. And the reason I don’t have them on now is it’s too damn cold. But I tell you, I miss them. (laughs)

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At its first meeting following a six-week summer recess, the Atlanta City Council today will finally take on a knotty issue that has troubled the city for years: street vendors.

Mayors have come and gone (and gone to prison) in the time that local officials have discussed, debated and feuded over the appropriate way to clean up what has long been described as the scroungiest bunch of street vendors and sidewalk hawkers this side of Sao Paulo.

But now the Council thinks it has the answer: outsourcing.

We don’t mean they’re shipping the guys selling fake Chanel handbags outside the Five Points MARTA Station off to Mumbai – although there’s something to be said for that idea.

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